Top Female Poker Players Of The Year

Every year, more and more women are joining the world of poker – a once male dominated niche. Quite a handful of them are doing quite well and leaving behind many top seeded male counterparts in the dust. Many of these poker divas have won prestigious tournaments that have made them household names. Let us look at the top female poker players of the year, particularly the much celebrated Vanessa Selbst.

“Vanessa Selbst” by flipchip – lasvegasvegas.com. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.Vanessa Selbst.jpg
It is safe to say that Vanessa Selbst is the most successful female poker player currently. She has been playing poker for over 10 years now and started out in online and live NLHE and PLO cash games. She then joined the live tournament scene seven years ago.

Vanessa Selbst is the only woman who has ever won three bracelets in an open WSOP event. Her best year was 2010 where she won many awards and earned close to $3M, which placed her 6th on the 2010 money list. She also got several high rankings in player of the year races, and received the Wicked Chops Player of the Year title. She finished in the quarterfinals of the NBC Heads Up Championship in the following year, among other glorious wins that gave her more than $1M in earnings.

In the last three years, she has won several tournaments like the High Roller and the Super High Roller and made money now totaling to $10.5. Outside her poker life, Vanessa Selbst has a law degree from Yale Law School and also runs a foundation known as Venture Justice that funds projects that fight against police misconduct, government abuse of authority and for racial justice and economic equality.

Kathy Liebert

Up to now, Kathy Liebert has made around $5.9M in tournaments winnings, most of which she made before 2010. She started winning poker games far back as 1994. In 2002, she earned $1M by winning the now defunct PartyPoker Million Cruise.

Annie Duke

Her involvement with Ultimate Bet, the failed Epic Poker League, made her quite unpopular with a large number of people in the poker community. The fact that she is Howard Lederer’s sister did not help either. Nonetheless, she comes in high on this list having won a WSOP bracelet in 2014. She made her biggest earning, a cool $2M, in the same year after winning the WSOP Tournament of Champions.

Annette Obrestad

Known as Annette 15, she is the youngest winner of a WSOP bracelet. She was already well known way before this in the online poker circles. Her online tournaments winnings totaling $2.62 million and together with her $3.9 million in live arena winnings, she poses a huge challenge to Selbts on the leader board. Many are amazed by her success, especially given how young she is.

Vanessa Rousso

Vanessa Rousso joined a group of top players who had won the High Roller prize at the EPT Grand Final back in 2009. She emerged first earning herself $700,160 most of which she spent on a Lamborghini Gallardo.

Jennifer Harman

A cash game specialist, Jennifer Harman has about $2.7 million in winnings from live tournaments and is a Poker Hall of Fame nominee. She has won many times from cash games in Las Vegas, and has won two WSOP bracelets.

Joanne J.J. Liu

With just only two of her results getting her close to a million dollars, she comes in at number 7. She finished fifth in the 2005 WPT Five Diamond Poker Classic.

Liv Boeree

An astrophysicist, Liv Boeree is one of the two Britons to make it to the top 10 all time money list. Four years ago in Italy, she beat a mammoth crowd of 1,240 and won the EPT San Remo Main Event earning herself $ 1.698 million.

Sandra Naujoks

Before getting into the mainstream in 2009, Sandra Naujoks had some considerably moderate success in poker. After winning the EPT Dortmund , which got her into the main stream, she has kept her focus on EPT and WSOP events.

Victoria Coren

Victoria Coren is not your average poker player. She is the host of a TV quiz show, an accomplished writer and wife to comic David Mitchell. Her total earning up to now is close to $ 1.7 million, most of which came from her winnings in the 2006 EPT London Main Event.